Deanne Shoyer www.smallbutkindamighty.wordpress.com Deanne is the mother of gorgeous twin boys, five years old, who are both on the autism spectrum. I’ve read a number of blog posts where the writer describes the ways that strangers or relatives make them feel their parenting skills are inadequate. This post will not be adding to that number. It is about a struggle I’ve had in dealing with some challenging behaviours from Oliver. My reactions to those behaviours led me to conclude (at least initially) that I wasn’t being the best mother I could be. Oliver had been displaying some pretty aggressive behaviour towards Owen: pushing him hard enough so that he would fall over, kicking him (usually once Owen was on the floor) and pulling his hair. The worst incident happened when Oliver pushed Owen off a chair and Owen fell on his head. It got to the stage that Owen…
Tag: behaviorist
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.Squidalicious.com www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com I want to tell you a secret about Autism Awareness. I’m telling you because you have a stake in the autism community; whether you touch one or many lives, you can change them, you are powerful. And, like me, you care. You want to make a difference — for yourself, for your child, for someone you love, for someone who depends on you. And you can make a difference, you will, if you keep this cornerstone of Autism Awareness in mind at all times. Ready? Here it is: Behavior is communication. That’s it. That’s all. That’s everything. If you put your mental backbone into behavioral awareness, into trying to understand why a person with autism, or a person associated with autism, behaves the way they do — if you can make yourself truly aware of that person’s needs — then that is when the…
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.squidalicious.com www.canisitwithyou.org www.blogher.com/blog/shannon-des-roches-rosa There are so many factors that can influence or illustrate how our children with autism are wearing their own skin, including but not limited to: health, toileting, aggressive and/or self-injurious behaviors, sleep patterns, medications, language usage, diet, and school performance. We’ve used a Google spreadsheet to successfully track important factors for my son Leo for the past several years. A daily record of Leo’s important variables helps track and explain underlying patterns if and when things go awry — or go well. Because we keep Leo’s record online as a Google docs spreadsheet, it can be shared with his entire school and home program team, as well as with interested family and friends. Once a behavioral record has been set up, it takes only a few minutes each day to fill it out. An online behavioral record spreadsheet has been an invaluable tool…